Digital Transformation: Supply Chains with Nilüfer Durak & Pia Orup Lund

Nilüfer Durak, COO of Solvoyo, and Pia Orup Lund, Analyst of Supply Chain Planning Technology at Gartner were our inspiring speakers. This event is part of the “Digital Transformation: Moving Forward Faster” sequel hosted by Dilek Duman, COO of Denizbank, and İbrahim Gökçen, the former Digital CTO of Schneider Electric. 

İbrahim laid the groundwork by explaining how COVID showed the world the importance of agile supply chains, which sense, react, and pivot to fast-changing conditions on the ground. 

Next, Pia outlined different stages of digital supply chain strategy from digital enablement to optimization to transformation. We learned that companies usually start off by leveraging their existing digital investments.  Yet, digital technology is most powerful when deployed to transform business and to create new business models.  

Nilüfer, one of the Founding Members of TurkishWIN, started off with our motto: ‘If I did it, so can you!’  She had no background in supply chain technology before her leadership role at Solvoyo, yet solving complex problems is common across industries. She moved on to explain what she understood from digital transformation, namely making smart decisions using technology. Nilufer added that the word digital does not mean buying some sexy algorithms like going to a restaurant and ordering fancy food from the menu. On the contrary, digital transformation is more like going to the gym because you have to sweat it out. 

İbrahim concluded our panelists’ comments aptly: "The world changes. Customers change. You need to be agile to adapt" 

You can watch the lively discussion at the TurkishWIN Learning Center. Here are our key takeaways: 

• The CEO is responsible for digital transformation and there is no way to outsource it. Then all ranks in the organization should take ownership otherwise, it won’t work. 
• Investing in digital supply chains create outcomes: 300 basis point increase in EBITDA
• Supply chain leaders are used to bounce back and deal with disruptions when outages occur, but the pandemic has revealed that they were focusing on efficiency only. Increasing resilience will be a top priority for many companies emerging from this crisis.
• 49% of supply chains learn from malfunctions. Why wait for mistakes, instead be proactive before disruptions occur. 
• We need to speak the language of data analytics and to invest in our teams to speak this language.
• First things first: Great marching orders from Ibrahim: "You have to accept that there will be uncertainties along the way but you have to be comfortable with it. ”
• Good leadership to pose: After all said and done, are we affecting the business model?

We thank our speakers, hosts, and the amazing WINners for making this event remarkable. Stay tuned for the next event of the series in February 2021!